Apple, Google Antitrust Accord Rejected: Business of Law

Aug. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc., Google Inc., Intel Corp.
and Adobe Systems Inc. failed to persuade a judge to approve a
$324.5 million settlement over claims they agreed to not recruit
each other’s workers.

U.S. District Judge Lucy H. Koh in San Jose on Aug. 8
refused to grant preliminary approval to the settlement after
expressing doubts about whether it was sufficient at a hearing
in June. The case, filed in 2011, has been an embarrassment for
some of Silicon Valley’s biggest companies by revealing behind-the-scenes brokering among top executives at the expense of
their workers.

The employees, represented by firms including Lieff
Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP and Grant & Eisenhofer, reached
the settlement in May, four days before a trial was scheduled to
begin.

Koh was urged to reject the settlement by a former Adobe
computer scientist who had been one of the lead plaintiffs in
the class action representing 64,000 workers until he concluded
the settlement was insufficient.

Matt Kallman, a spokesman for Mountain View, California-based Google, declined to comment on the ruling.

The case is In re High-Tech Employee Antitrust Litigation,
11-cv-02509, U.S. District Court, Northern District of
California (San Jose).

NCAA Will Appeal Judge’s $800 Million Student-Player Pay Ruling

The National Collegiate Athletic Association will appeal a
federal court ruling that allows student athletes to seek a
share of $800 million in annual broadcast revenue.

A lawsuit filed in 2009 by ex-college basketball player Ed
O’Bannon challenged the treatment of students as amateurs as
college basketball and football evolved into multibillion-dollar
businesses, with money flowing to the NCAA, broadcasters, member
schools and coaches -- everyone but the players.

“We remain confident that the NCAA has not violated the
antitrust laws and intend to appeal,” NCAA’s chief legal
officer, Donald Remy, said in a statement. “We will also be
seeking clarity from the District Court on some details of its
ruling.”

U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken in Oakland, California,
ruled Aug. 8 that the NCAA structure violates antitrust law by
limiting what schools can offer athletes. She said college
sports’ governing body can no longer cap scholarships below the
cost of attendance and that players should be paid for the use
of their names, images and likenesses.

The case is In Re NCAA Student-Athlete Name and Likeness
Licensing Litigation, 4:09-cv-01967, U.S. District Court,
Northern District of California (Oakland).

Maryland Agrees to Pay $31.4 Million to ACC for Joining Big Ten

The University of Maryland and Atlantic Coast Conference
have settled their dispute over Maryland’s decision to leave the
ACC for approximately $31.4 million.

In an announcement on Aug. 8, the ACC the amount reflects
the revenues already withheld from the school since its 2012
decision to leave the conference. Maryland could have paid more:
under ACC provisions, the exit fee is calculated at three times
its annual operating budget, or more than $50 million, Bloomberg
Sports reported.

“This agreement allows everyone to fully focus their
energy and efforts on prioritizing the student-athletes,
especially in this significant time of change within the NCAA
restructuring,” ACC Commissioner John Swofford said in an e-mailed statement.

The settlement ends all litigation between the two sides,
and Maryland has no further financial obligation to its former
conference, according to the release. Lawsuits in the states of
North Carolina and Maryland will also be dismissed.

Maryland, a charter member of the ACC since it joined in
1953, officially moved to the Big Ten on July 1.

The exit fee far exceeds the amounts paid by schools
leaving other conferences. Pittsburgh and Syracuse agreed on
$7.5 million departure payments from the Big East in July 2012.

Law Firm News

Laterals Join Kleinberg Kaplan, Snell & Wilmer, Dykema, Venable

Joseph Iskowitz has joined Kleinberg Kaplan Wolff & Cohen,
P.C. as a partner in the firm’s hedge fund practice. He
previously was a partner in the New York office of Katten Muchin
Rosenman LLP. Iskowitz focuses his practice on the formation and
structuring of domestic and offshore investment funds, including
hedge funds and private equity funds, and advises funds on a
range of issues.

Snell & Wilmer LLP has added two partners and one counsel
to its ranks. Patent prosecution partner Jonathan Jaech and
intellectual property litigation counsel Glenn Trost have joined
the firm’s Los Angeles office. Along with patent prosecutor
Grant Langton, who joined the firm earlier this month, Jaech and
Trost were previously with the law firm Novak Druce Connolly
Bove + Quigg LLP.

Jaech’s practice includes intellectual property counseling,
due diligence, licensing and transactions, patent prosecution
including appeals and reissue, and reexaminations. Trost, an
engineer, is a first-chair trial and appellate lawyer who
represents clients in disputes involving claims of patent
infringement, copyright infringement, trademark infringement,
trade secret violations and rights to publicity.

Additionally, Raymond Heyman has joined Snell & Wilmer’s
natural resources practice as a partner in the Phoenix office.
Heyman is regulatory attorney who represents electric, gas,
water, sewer, solar and telecommunication companies throughout
the Southwest. Heyman had been the general counsel of UniSource
Energy/Tucson Electric Power Company until 2011, when the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints asked him to preside over
its Argentina mission for three years, the firm said in a
statement. He returned from that assignment in July 2014.

Eric Berman, an antitrust lawyer, has joined Venable LLP as
counsel in the firm’s Washington office. He represents clients
in merger reviews and litigation as well as advertising and
consumer protection claims before the Federal Trade Commission,
the firm said in a statement. Previously, Berman was a partner
and chair of the antitrust and trade regulation practice at
Williams Mullen.

Eric White has joined the corporate finance practice of
Dykema Gossett PLLC as senior counsel in the firm’s Dallas
office. Prior to joining Dykema, White practiced in the Dallas
office of Patton Boggs LLP, now Squire Patton Boggs. White
focuses his practice on domestic and international finance
transactions.